The present invention relates generally to residential refrigerators, and, more specifically, to ice making therein.
A typical residential refrigerator includes a refrigeration compartment and a separate freezer compartment. Ice may be formed manually or automatically in the freezer in various conventional manners.
A simple plastic ice tray may be manually filled with water by the user and placed in the freezer for a sufficient time to freeze the water therein and form ice cubes. Alternatively, an automatic ice maker automatically fills an ice tray with water, and after freezing thereof automatically ejects the cubes from the tray into a storage hopper.
The air in the freezer compartment is typically well below freezing temperature and typically is circulated around all the exposed sides of the ice tray for maximizing the freezing rate thereof, as well as maximizing ice production rate in the automatic ice maker. However, the individual ice cubes freeze from outside in and thusly trap liberated air released from solution during the freezing process. The liberated air in the form of minute air bubbles is captured within the frozen cube and creates a cloudy or opaque appearance.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved ice tray for making clear ice cubes in a residential refrigerator.
An ice tray includes mold cells each having an open top and closed bottom. The bottom is air permeable for venting released air during formation of ice cubes therein. And, external sides of the ice tray may be thermally insulated for enhancing directional solidification of the ice cubes